


secret moments in a crowded room

by chaoticisms



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Graduation, academy au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:47:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27587666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaoticisms/pseuds/chaoticisms
Summary: When the fraternization rules no longer apply, there's nothing holding Phil Coulson back. Graduation couldn't have been sweeter.
Relationships: Phil Coulson/Melinda May
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	secret moments in a crowded room

He almost choked on his water when he saw her.

She walked into the restaurant wearing heels that could kill, a long black jumpsuit with a cut out at the front that dipped juuuust far enough, her hair was pulled back from her face but free to bounce below her shoulders.

And don’t even get him started on the red lipstick.

He’d seen Melinda May dressed up before, rarely, but damn. She was breathtaking and had every reason to be.

“Sorry sorry! I got caught up on the phone,” she said, flustered as she approached the table.

The other cadets had been at the restaurant for about 15 minutes already, enough time for Nick Fury to recount a story about having to break up a fight between younger Jasper Sitwell and John Garrett in their final year at the Academy when they’d both been chosen to lead the first cadet undercover op.

John and Jasper rolled their eyes at each other, and Phil laughed while Victoria Hand and Maria Hill were deep in their own conversation about their post-graduation plans.

“No worries, Agent - we wouldn’t start without our most prestigious graduate!” Agent Carter - Peggy - smiled.

Melinda slid into the only available seat at the table across from Maria and Phil did his best to ignore the chill that ran up his spine when her knee brushed his as she sat down next to him. They shared a smile before Hill popped the bottle of champagne that had been waiting on ice.

“To a spectacular group of Agents, who survived! Just..” she toasted.

The table erupted in cheers and grins as everyone’s glasses met in the middle. 

Melinda, Phil, and the rest of their friends (who slowly turned into a family) had finally graduated from the Academy.

Maria hadn’t yet decided on her next move, something the very organized and competitive young agent was still coming to terms with. She was lucky to have both the connections and opportunities as a low-level agent. 

Vic was planning a move back to New York with her wife, Agent Hartley, was itching to get home. Vic was scheduled to leave for Brazil the next week, so she was leaving DC tomorrow afternoon. Melinda had no idea when she’d see them again.

Phil and Melinda were going to stay in DC. Melinda was scheduled for a mission that would leave the day after tomorrow for Australia while Phil was organizing from the Triskelion. And house-sitting. 

And while Melinda would mostly be working with Peggy Carter in her new role, Phil was quietly glad he’d still bump into the best partner he’s ever had.

Graduation was bittersweet. As Melinda looked around the room filled with every person that made her into the agent...the person that’s standing before them, her throat began to close up as she fought the tears that pricked at the corners of her eyes. She would see them all again, and they would have more moments like this. 

Phil caught her eye and smiled, dipping his glass towards her.

“I’m really proud of you, Agent May,” he said quietly.

She blushed and tapped the rim of his glass with hers

“You too, Agent Coulson,” she smiled, before taking a sip.

Drinks flowed and the plates of food seemed endless as the night carried on, an air of calm and contentment surrounding the group.

Relaxed and outside of work, Melinda finally told her colleagues that actually, she’d hated being the top specialist this year and never wanted the attention anyway. But she was glad she got to boss around all of her favorite people, who made the title and gawking eyes much more bearable. But, she really, _really_ , hated the attention. 

A few champagnes deep, Jasper admitted that the time he’d taken emergency leave about 7 months earlier wasn’t because his mother was ill - he’d just been missing his wife.

“Isn’t she about 7 months along?!” Maria quizzed.

Jasper smirked, said nothing, and took a sip of his drink.

Maybe it was a night for confessions.

As she allowed Phil to pour her another drink from the bottle of wine on the table, she turned and smiled at him, inadvertently pushing her knee against his under the table.

“Thanks,” she said quietly, suddenly noticing how close they’d gotten.

Neither bothered to move.

“Who were you talking to earlier?” Phil asked her, refilling his own glass.

“What?”

“You said you got caught up on the phone,” he clarified.

“Oh.” she remembered. “Yeah, just Andrew.”

He tried not to react and took a gulp from his glass.

He hadn’t heard her talk about Andrew in almost a year, he’d assumed they’d fallen out of touch after their futile attempt at dating.

Phil readjusted himself in his seat and Melinda’s leg felt cold when she noticed he’d pulled away.

“He was just calling to say congratulations,” she said, trying to fill the sudden silence between them. “He and his partner are expecting a baby in a few months.”

Phil exhaled. He didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath. “Oh?” he smiled, turning his whole body to face her. “That’s great news.”

She felt her entire body erupt in goosebumps when his knee grazed hers again under the table.

That time it felt intentional.

Peggy pulled Melinda into a discussion with Fury on the other side of the table about whether or not you wait for medical before pulling out a bullet from someone’s face.

“It’s on your face!” Peggy cried. “You’d want to make sure it was done properly or that poor bloke will end up with a massive scar! Right, May?”

“It’d fade and no one cares about a scar,” Fury said.

Melinda nodded and probably ended up agreeing with both sides, but she couldn’t add anything to the argument.

Because suddenly she was distracted by a heavy hand resting on her leg.

Her eyes flicked around, panicked that someone could see what was going on under the table, despite the cover of a table cloth and numerous bottles of wine blurring everyone’s vision.

She didn't know whether to face Phil.

Did he realize what he was doing?

Of course he did.

She sat back in her chair and slowly turned to look at him, a small, suspicious smile pulling at her lips.

He smirked, squeezing her leg and sliding his hand a little further up her thigh, watching her draw a sudden breath at the move.

While the tension between the pair had been building for months, if not years, neither had ever outwardly acknowledged it. Phil had never wanted to compromise her job and Melinda could never allow herself to even entertain the idea of fraternizing with her partner.

But he wasn’t really her partner anymore. And she really wasn’t his. 

She swallowed a small giggle - because Melinda May definitely _doesn’t_ giggle under any circumstance - and turned back to the table, trying to ignore the voices in her head telling her the restaurant was suddenly the last place she wanted to be.

Phil casually chatted golf with Fury and John, then the Mets with Jasper as everyone continued eating and drinking. Melinda tried to contribute to a conversation with Vic, Peggy, and Maria, but the invisible patterns Phil’s thumb was drawing on her thigh kept causing her to lose her train of thought. She silently cursed him for managing to pretend nothing was happening, while she felt like a duck in a pond - calm on the surface but certainly not underneath.

When restaurant staff started packing up around them, the team took the less than subtle hint that it was time to head for the door and Melinda had never been so glad to pay a bill in her life.

Melinda walked out in front of Phil, letting out a quiet sigh when she felt a light hand on the small of her back as the group made their way to a taxi rank. Jasper, John, Vic, Izzy, and Maria headed in the opposite direction, bound for a karaoke bar that on any other night Melinda would have loved to watch her friends embarrass themselves.

But not tonight.

She watched Phil as he put a rather wobbly Nick Fury in a cab and waved another over.

“Are we all heading in the same direction?” Peggy said, looking between Phil and Melinda. “We can just split one, I believe your place would be first, Melinda?”

She hesitated.

Splitting a cab with Peggy Carter would make it difficult to get out of going home alone.

“Yours is actually closer, I think Agent Carter,” Phil piped up. “We can drop you, then May, then me.”

She had no idea if he was right and frankly, neither did he.

But she wasn’t about to argue.

And if Melinda thought the hours sitting at the dinner table were frustrating, she had no idea what was waiting for her in the back of the dark taxi when she climbed in next to Phil and felt his hand on her thigh again.

Peggy barely said goodbye when the cab pulled up outside of her place, half asleep and full of wine they watched her stumble to the front door and let herself in before Melinda gave the driver her address.

“It’ll be the last stop,” she added.

That was Phil’s total undoing.

His hand slid further up Melinda’s leg and she unconsciously drew them apart just slightly, as his fingers gripped her inner thigh. She took a sharp breath in as his fingers danced over the material of her pant legs. She turned to face him, slowly leaning closer before their lips crashed together in a desperate and frenzied kiss. She held the back of his neck, fingers in his hair and she pulled him closer. She needed all of him, all over her.

If the taxi driver knew what was happening in the back seat, he didn’t say anything. Just casually flicked on the light when he pulled up out the front of Melinda’s apartment. Phil paid as Melinda climbed out of the car, managing to swipe into the building by the time Phil caught up with her.

Their kisses continued in the elevator up to Melinda’s floor. Her back pressed against the mirrors, his lips on her neck. Her leg wrapped around his waist, one of his hands under her thigh. Suddenly she wished she’d been wearing a dress. They were lucky it was late and no one else got onto the elevator before it reached level four.

He was already pulling at the zip on her back by the time they made it to her bedroom and he swore he could see a flash of frustration in her eyes when it momentarily got stuck.

But he quickly pushed the straps of her jumpsuit off her shoulders and her head rolled back as he reconnected his lips with her skin. He didn’t think he could be more turned on until he noticed she hadn’t been wearing a bra.

Neither of them said a word beyond a few desperate groans of each other’s names when he pinned her beneath him on the bed and their hands and lips wandered freely, finally surrendering to every ounce of desire and frustration they’d forced themselves to ignore while they were partners.

He'd heard his name called out before, but when it slipped from Melinda's lips, it was its own category of spectacular symphony.

Later, when Melinda’s head was resting on Phil’s chest and their legs intertwined, he considered asking her if he should go. But then she looked up at him, those tired brown eyes almost melting him on the spot, and kissed his lips softly a few times, before she snuggled back into his neck.

So he stayed quiet and squeezed her lightly before closing his eyes.


End file.
